1. Evaluate the changes Dore-Dore has made in its children’s
knitwear division. How does the performance of the traditional
operations and the cellular manufacturing system dier? For
example, how does work-in-process inventory change when cells
are implemented?
Traditional Operations: Under traditional operations, Doré-Doré’s
production batch size in sewing, on average, was 200 pieces of the same
style and color, with an average of eight di erent sizes within a batch.
The knitwear sewing contained 55 sewing machines installed and was
sta ed by 42 workers (Exhibit 7). The additional machines were either
specialty machines used for occasional operations or extra machines
used in periods of peak demand. The sewing machine operators worked
eight hours per day, +ve days per week. Sewing an average knitwear
garment took 10 minutes of actual labor.
Cellular Manufacturing: Cellular manufacturing signiticantly reduced
many types of waste present in the traditional sewing process and
resulted in delivery time falling from 15 days to 1 day. Given a 0ow rate
of 2,000 garments per day work-in-progress fell from 30,000 to 2,000
units, improving annual work-in-process turns from 16X to 240X.
According to Exhibit 4, the work-in-progress inventory fell by an
estimated 1.23FF million and holding costs by 275,000FF .
Comparison: The grid layout by machine type of the traditional system
took no account of garment dependent work0ow variability and resulted
in the unnecessary movement of inventory. By contrast the garment-
specific cell design reduced product movement and cross-trained
operators who could switch tasks, which helped balance work-0ow
(Exhibit 6).
2. What changes are required to ensure successful implementation of cellular manufacturing? Is
worker cross-training necessary?
Reorganization: The knitwear factory was currently organized by machine typ. For example, all buon
hole machines were located in one area. Batches of partially-completed product were moved in wheeled
bins by “oor supervisors or material handlers to the next required operation.
Crisis Management: If a machine in a cell broke down, it would have to be quickly repaired or replaced;
if possible, during the repair period, the worker would move to another machine within the cell to
